Senate Panel Advances Surplus Property Bill

Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Chair Thomas Carper (D-DE) introduced S. 1398, legislation intended to expedite the sale of surplus federal properties, on July 30. The measure was approved by the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs on July 31 and now awaits action by the Senate as a whole. Homeless advocate groups, led by the National Law Center on Homelessness and Poverty, expressed opposition to the measure in a letter sent to Committee Chair Carper and Ranking Member Tom Coburn (R-OK) prior to the July 31 Committee markup. Title V of the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act gives homeless service providers a first right of refusal to surplus federal properties before they are made available for sale. The bill would waive these Title V rights in an attempt to streamline the disposition process.Expediting the surplus property disposition process have been the subject of congressional scrutiny as part of deficit reduction conversations. Advocates are concerned that Title V must stay intact through any changes made through the process. S. 1398 would do away with Title V and instead create a small grant program to benefit homeless service providers. The groups said, “Because this legislation would eliminate the right of first refusal to acquire surplus federal property at no cost that Congress granted to homeless service providers more than 20 years ago, through Title V of the McKinney-Vento Act, we must strongly oppose this bill.”Senator Carper expressed concern in the hearing that very few properties have been transferred to homeless service providers since the law was enacted. The groups said, “Surplus properties are not being disposed of because of bureaucratic delays and confusion at the General Services Administration (GSA) and other federal agencies—problems having nothing to do with Title V. Consequently, we can only support legislation that retains the existing Title V homeless property conveyance process, and provides homeless services providers with at least 5% of the proceeds of any properties that might be exempted from Title V and sold.”The full text of S. 1382 will be available on Thomas.gov.An archived webcast of the business meeting will be available at: http://1.usa.gov/18RKHAx Read the advocates’ letter at: http://bit.ly/14d7VN6